The Karsh Center: Meeting Needs in Our Community
Many of the services offered at the Karsh Family Social Service Center have been designed to address immediate problems, such as hunger, illness, and legal issues. Once those immediate needs have been addressed, the Center will continue to provide a one-stop location where each client can develop an ongoing relationship with dedicated professionals.
We serve anyone in need for free or at very low cost. We provide an integrated model of care and reliable, talented, trained volunteers who want to help. Our clients range from children to young adults to seniors. The Koreatown community, the Karsh Center’s home, is extremely diverse, with an estimated 25 percent of families living below the federal poverty line, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The county estimates that one in three adults in Koreatown go hungry some of the time, with 38 percent unable to afford dental care. An estimated 27 percent of children and 20 percent of adults are obese and suffer from diabetes or related health problems.
Description of Services
The Karsh Center’s core offerings include dental and vision care, pro bono legal services, a food pantry, support groups for people experiencing loss and trauma, and ESL classes. Our expectation is that the initial services will expand to include parenting advice, support for those caring for the elderly, diabetes prevention, literacy programming, and more.
Collaborators
Koreatown is home to wonderful, proven providers of comprehensive services. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we have chosen to collaborate with these organizations to bring their services to the Karsh Center. And we have challenged them to create new and innovative programs tailored to our clients. We acknowledge the importance of trust between client and provider and anticipate that these organizations will act as trusted liaisons for the clients they have served for so many years.
Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s Community Service Programs
Wilshire Boulevard Temple has a long history of community service. The Karsh Family Social Service Center will become the nexus for existing and new services, as well as annual programs to help people in need. In addition to the food pantry, vision and dental care, pro bono legal aid, and support groups to assist with loss and trauma, those services and programs will include Build-a-Bike, a daylong event where we assemble bikes for delivery to underserved kids; The Big Give, the annual gathering of volunteers who prepare and distribute Thanksgiving meals to feed 4,000 of our hungry neighbors; Jews with Tools, a day volunteers dedicate to help build housing for low-income residents, and many more.
Bikes for Tykes
Remember your first bike? How would you like to give an L.A. child a first bike, and all of the fun, health, and independence a new bike can mean? Form a team with fellow congregants and assemble bikes and present them, along with helmets and locks, to deserving kids. Register >
The Big Give
On the day of The Big Give, we assemble 1,000 complete Thanksgiving dinners-for-four and distribute them on the spot to some our city’s most needy families. Your entire family is welcome to participate; we have great activities for kids.
Christmas Cooks
By cooking and serving a hot sit-down meal, Temple adults and teens help make Christmas a more joyful day for many trying to transition out of homelessness
Jews with Tools
Help build a home for a deserving Los Angeles family. Habitat for Humanity provides the tools and the real estate. You supply the time, labor, and love.
Disaster Response Team
When natural disasters strike, we’re fixed on the news and want to help. Physical and financial donations are essential, but it can’t stop there. That’s why we’re building a Disaster Response Team — so we can be on the ground in the days and weeks after a disaster, responding in a meaningful way to the needs of those affected.